February 2012

By Steve Grob
Two stories this week demonstrated that Greece isn’t the only thing Europe has to disagree about. Together they both help highlight the problem regulators have worldwide with HFT. The first story, by the FT’s Jeremy Grant, describes how Italy’s Borsa Italiana is bowing to Consob pressure and introducing a fee structure that will charge participants more depending upon the number of orders they submit. This effectively introduces a tax on the HFT...

By Steve Grob
Not much surprise at this week’s news then, but the rationale for blocking the deal seems odd. Firstly, and whatever they may claim, Brussels did take an overly Eurocentric view. Just call the CME in Chicago and ask where Liffe and Eurex appear on its list of major competitors. Secondly, the Commission claims that LIFFE and EUREX themselves compete but, in fact, they are effectively two ‘mini-monopolies’ operating at opposite ends of the yield curve with almost...